It's COLD!!!!!!!!!

It's so cold!!! I'm sitting here enjoying another snow day with the kids. The temp hasn't risen above 20 degrees since Sunday and the ground is still covered with ice. At least it's not as bad as a year ago when we had inches of ice covering everything and was without electricity for days!!!!! It's nice to have a few extra days at home to spend time with the kiddos! Jacob has been super excited about the ice/snow as you can imagine. Meteorologist Jacob has been constantly check the clouds through the window (since mom won't allow him outside in the freezing cold). I think the kids actually have been enjoying the time together too. It's so fun to sit back and watch them play and yes, get along for the most part! I've realized that I no longer have babies anymore! It's a bittersweet thought. All I've known for the past 5 years is having a little baby around the house. Even though I am still changing Mckynlee's diapers (hopefully for not much longer), there are no other signs of "babies" in my house. (I've gathered all of the baby gear for the upcoming JBF sale - that's the consignment sale that I put all of my things and kids clothes in to "get rid of" and make a good amount of money in the process!) I sometimes find myself missing all of the baby stuff, but then I remember how we've made it past all of that baby stuff - feeding, spitting up, drooling, crying, messy, yucky baby food -and I realize that I don't really miss ALL of the baby stuff, just the cute little baby itself. I have 3 of those, they just are bigger! I must say that 3 is the magic number for the Simpsons!

Jacob had his church Christmas choir pageant last Sunday and did such a great job! Jacob got to be a "bell ringer" for one of their songs. I was so proud of him! He loves choir and is a pretty good singer if I do say so myself. Kade can't wait until he's big enough to sing during "choir church" too.

Kade has turned into such a big boy lately! I can't believe it myself, but he had finally stopped sucking his thumb! Yes, Kade is no longer a thumb-sucker. It's a relief to me to know that he's not doing that anymore, but it's kind of sad. Yet another sign that there are no more babies in my house! Until 2 weeks ago, Kade has never known life without sucking his thumb! Every ultrasound picture I have of Kade, he was sucking that thumb, even in my belly! I am so proud of him for giving it up so easily!! Think of what a habit it has become! I must admit that since he turned 1, I would cringe every time he would put that nasty thumb in his mouth! Even though his docotor and others would tell me that it's o.k., to just let him work it out himself, I never liked it! I have a kid in class that still sucks his thumb and I've found myself thinking that that will be my son in preschool...sitting in class, sucking his thumb! So what made him quit?? A trip to Dr. Sood, our pediatrician. Mike took Kade in for his 3 year check up 2 weeks ago. For the last 2 years, his thumb has been a topic of discussion at his check-ups. How do I make him quit? Will he give it up himself? Will his teeth be jacked-up? Every visit up until the most recent, Dr. Sood assured me that it was nothing to be concerned about at that point. The last year, he had stopped sucking it during the day unless he was upset and then only sucked his thumb at night and naps, in which she told me that was progress so not to worry about it. Her advice was to talk to him about it and reassure him that he didn't need his thumb. We've spent the past year using every tactic in the world...reasoning, being firm, telling him he was being a baby, rewarding, bribing, etc. to make him stop, but being the hard-headed, stubborn child that he is nothing we said or did worked!!! So...at his appt. w/Dr. Sood, she explained to him that now that he is 3, he is no longer allowed to suck his thumb in which he answered, "OK!" (alright, Mike and I had already had the conversation about him being 3 but did it work w/us, NO!) She put a Diego band-aid on his thumb as a visual reminder of their "conversation" and that was the end of the thumb-sucking! Seriously!! That's all it took! All those time I've fretted and worried about how I'm going to get my son to stop this nasty habit, all it took was a Diego band-aid! Whatever, I'm just glad it worked! 2 weeks and no thumb...not even at nap or night time! Kade is so proud of himself! Not putting his thumb in his mouth has also changed his whining issue. He has an entire different mind-set of how he's a "big boy" now!

I don't really have anything new on Mckynlee! She's still a "spit-fire" as one of her teachers has referred to her! She loves her brothers and loves antagonizing them already. She's really good at it! Her "new" thing is to do ballet! She tells me, "Mommy, I do ballet" and then twirls around and around until she falls and then she does it all over again! She can actually do ballet for real next fall. Miss Kristy's (where I dance) offers a baby ballet class for 2 1/2 year-olds. You know I can't wait to see my little girl put on a tutu and dance! That was the one thing that I knew I would be sad to miss out on if I didn't have a little girl! I was fine with the thought of having 3 boys, up until the realization that I would never have a little ballerina. I guess I don't have to worry about that now because Mckynlee loves to dance and wants to go to dance class with me every Monday night! Imagine that!!

Mckynlee just informed me "Mommy I poop in my diaper", so I guess that's my cue to wrap this up! (I know you wanted to know that!) Like I said, my last sign of "baby" in my house, so I will happily go change my daughters stinky diaper! If I don't soon, she'll remove her diaper herself so I better get a move on it!

Stay warm today!

Jenn

A Birthday to Remember!!!

I guess it's about time for me to get "with it" so I thought I would try out this blogging thing! We've had such a busy month, which isn't out of the ordinary for us. We just celebrated Kade's 3rd birthday a couple of weeks ago (November 7th). I can't believe our little baby boy is 3! WOW! Anyway, he had quite a memorable birthday! The day started out normal. Kade woke up very excited that he was now 3! (I remember how excited Jacob was about his third birthday.) The 3rd birthday really seems to be the one where they actually realize that it's their birthday and they are now older than before. Kade had a party at his school the day before his birthday and would have party #2 at the babysitters the afternoon of his birthday. When Kade got home that evening, we would have yet another "party" with just us (mom, dad, brother and sister). We opened presents, had a little cake and then packed up to drive to my parent's house that evening for yes, his 4th party the following day with my family. (We're not party "freaks"...these are all just mini gatherings which include cake/cupcakes and a chorus of Happy Birthday). Things were going as planned...we left the house when we wanted (unusual for the Simpsons...we are always late!), the kids had all fallen asleep in the van on our 2 hour drive to my parents. All was well. We arrived at my mom and dad's at around 10:30. The kids woke up for a few minutes, played with Grandma and Grandpa for a short while and then made their way to brush teeth and then bed. Jacob (who always sleeps in Gma and Gpa's bed) decided to be a nice big brother and "let" Kade sleep in my parent's bed since it was his birthday. Jacob and Mckynlee were in bed and asleep, Mike had fallen asleep on the couch Kade had just hopped in bed with my parents and I was putting on my pjs, 2 seconds from sleep, when I hear a loud "thud" and then cries and screams. It was Kade! I thought he had somehow fallen off of the bed and hit the wall. I ran to my parents room to check out what had happend to find my dad holding Kade with blood gushing from his head!!! Kade had leaned back on what he thought was a nice fluffy pillow, but missed the pillow and hit the edge of their headboard instead! OUCH! Just by the amount of blood and the look of the gash in his head I knew he would need stitches, but keep telling myself that maybe I was wrong! After several minutes his head was still gushing blood so Mike and I hopped back in the van and made a trip to the ER in nearby Fort Smith, AR to have Kade's head stitched up! We lucked out because there wasn't a soul in the waiting room at the ER...just us! We were in and out in probably 45 minutes, which is unheard of in an ER! Kade was so brave! He did cry and scream and protest during the whole process, but did much better than I had expected! I don't know who was in more pain though, mom or Kade! When it was all said and done, Kade actually was pretty proud that he had something his brother did not...stitches!!! All on his 3rd birthday! We went on the next day to have an awesome OU football birthday party with my family. Other than a bald spot where they shaved his head to put in the stitches, you would have never known what he had gone through the night of his birthday! He'll always have a permanent reminder of turning 3! And yes, we did have party #5 the following weekend with Mike's family and our "GameNight" friends and Kade's friends! I hope Mckynlee's upcoming birthday is a little less "eventful!!"